Theatre 2023: Mirvish - Pressure

Pressure is a Scottish play which deals with an unlikely Scottish World War II war hero who never fired a shot, but whose actions saved the lives of over 300,000 men and affected the outcome of the war. The play was first performed in 2014 at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh before moving to London’s West-End in 2018 and now to Toronto in 2023, delayed by several years due to the COVID shutdowns.

James Martin Stagg (1900-1971) was a senior meteorologist with the United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force who was tasked with leading a team of 6 who had to predict what the weather would be like over a period of 3 days between June 5 to June 7, 1944. The Battle of Normandy, a massive military campaign codenamed “Operation Overload”, was planned to take place some time during this narrow window, based on predictions of favourable tides and the phase of the moon.  The assault would begin with air bombardment by 1200 planes to take out German airfields and fuel supplies, followed by the approach of 5000 warships carrying soldiers for ground battle. 

 The allied forces led by American general Dwight D. Eisenhower had tentatively scheduled “D-Day”, or the first day of a major military operation, to be on June 5.  It was up to Stagg to confirm if the weather would cooperate.  A successful mission depended on clear skies and a full moon so that the air operations would have good visibility to see their targets, low winds and calm seas so that the fleet could safely approach the shore, and low tides so that the descending ground troops could see German  mines and other obstacles. 

Stagg, who was native to the area and familiar with the capricious nature of the English Channel, predicted a huge storm would descend on the scheduled D-Day, despite the weather being sunny and pleasant several days before. His American counterpart, commercial meteorologist Irving Krick, strongly disagreed and predicted good weather.  While Stagg used both experience and technical measurements of temperature, humidity, precipitation, cloud cover and wind patterns for his forecast, Krick used a misguided and since debunked method of predicting future weather based on similar historical patterns and cycles.

Stagg was correct in his predictions and luckily convinced Eisenhower to postpone the original D-Day, thus avoiding catastrophe since a major storm did blow in. His heroics went even further when he then spotted a brief window of improving weather for the next day, which allowed D-Day to go forward on the early morning of June 6, 1944.  Although the conditions were not ideal, they were good enough for a successful operation and the rest is history, as the saying goes.  Stagg was awarded the Legion of Merit and appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his invaluable war efforts.

Haig's play Pressure focuses on the big decision of whether to proceed with the scheduled D-Day with a secondary plot exploring the rumoured war-time affair between Eisenhower and his secretary/personal chauffeur Kay Summersby.  In the first act which sets up the scenario, we are a bit overwhelmed by weather-forecasting lingo and statistics as Stagg analyzes information from maps and data that are gathered remotely from off-shore observers and weather balloons. There were no satellites to aid him back in 1944.  To help with our understanding, the large weather maps that are delivered intermittently throughout the play are covered with large swirly weather patterns with storms identified in large red letters named L1, L2 .. L8, and a big red H representing a high-pressure system which theoretically would bring good weather.  As each new map is rolled out, we could see the markers for the storms shift and grow as Stagg explains the meaning of the movements. 

The role of James Stagg is played by Kevin Doyle (known for playing the butler turned schoolteacher Joseph Molesley from the TV show Downton Abbey).  The name of the play cleverly alludes to both the atmospheric pressure that Stagg measured, as well as the extreme pressure that he was under to come to the right conclusion about the weather on June 5.  Adding further to the drama was his concern over his wife’s difficult pregnancy and impending child-birth.  This may or may not have been added for dramatic purposes, but Stagg’s second child was indeed born in 1944.  As the antagonist in the play, Irving Krick is portrayed (perhaps excessively or stereotypically) as a loudmouthed, overbearing American who spouts his misconceptions as facts, living up to his reputation as being more of a showman than a scientist.

Although all the action took place in the single room where Stagg performed his analysis, a clever piece of staging helped to accentuate the problem that he faced.  To the right of the stage were a set of double doors that opened up to reveal the "weather outside”.  Through use of lighting to simulate bright sunshine, it was clear that the weather was fine for days leading up to D-Day.  This made Stagg’s prediction of the impending storm even more difficult to accept. The harbinger of the big storm that finally arrived was conveyed by a gust of wind that caused the curtains around the doors to flap and some papers to fly around.  Then the skies darkened as pelting rain, thunder and lightning could be seen and heard, all through these doors.

Rounding out the play are multiple tender interactions between Eisenhower and Summersby that left no doubt as to their emotional (and perhaps physical?) connection.  It was also made clear that with the success of Operation Overload and the impending end of the war, this relationship, borne out of extreme and heightened circumstances, would also be coming to an end. Sadly for Summersby, she would be left behind as collateral damage.

Considering how often weather predictions are wrong today, even with all our modern technology, the feat achieved by James Stagg and his team was remarkable, especially given the dire importance of getting it right.  This was a gripping piece of history, but having said that, it still was quite the accomplishment for this play to make weather sound exciting.

Theatre 2023: Fifteen Dogs @ Crow's Theatre

On stage at Crow’s Theatre, the play Fifteen Dogs is based a novel by Canadian author André Alexis, which my husband Rich and I both read and enjoyed a few years back. The premise revolves around a wager between the Greek Gods Apollo and Hermes as to whether animals would be unhappy if they were given human intelligence.  Passing a veterinary clinic where 15 dogs were being kept, the Gods decided to pick these animals as the test subjects to settle their bet.  Apollo wagered that burdened with human qualities, all the dogs would die unhappy.  Hermes bet that at least one of the 15 dogs would benefit from the additional awareness and would feel happiness at the point of death.

Imbued with human consciousness and intelligence, the dogs quickly figured out how to unlock the doors of their cages. Twelve of the dogs fled their captivity while three decided to remain and were unfortunately put down once the escape was discovered.  The rest of the book follows the twelve dogs for the durations of their lives as they grappled with their unnatural new traits and skills, occasionally with further intervention from the two Gods, as well as from their peeved father Zeus, King of the Greek Gods.

Of different breeds, temperaments, sizes and ages, the dogs reacted differently to the new thoughts and feelings that befell them. Atticus, a grey Neapolitan Mastiff abhorred the changes and was determined to suppress them and only display “normal and natural” canine traits.  As one of the largest and most powerful dogs in the group, he assumed the role of leader and demanded that all who wanted to remain in his pack would follow suit in acting like “real” dogs. Joining him were Rosie, a female German Shepherd, Frick and Frack, two Labrador Retrievers, Benjy, a cunning self-serving Beagle and a few others.

Any dog who did not readily obey Atticus or fit into his plans would be killed by his gang.  While they were successful in eliminating several dogs including the Great Dane Bella and little Teacup Poodle Athena, two dogs managed to survive.  Of all the dogs, the mutt named Prince embraced his new powers of thought the most.  He became a poet, speaking in flowery, abstract terms that drove Atticus to distraction.  But before he could be killed, Prince was given a warning by Hermes and escaped into exile. The large black Poodle Majnoun was a threat to Atticus’ leadership status and therefore was attacked en masse by the group.  He was left for dead but managed to survive when he was rescued by Nira and Miguel, two humans who adopted him.  Much of the book follows the exploits of Majnoun (renamed Jim by his new owners) and Prince.

André Alexis set this fable in Toronto, his hometown, focusing on High Park where the dogs made their new home after their escape, and the Beach where Prince spent much of his time after his exile.  The printed version of the novel even contains maps of these two areas.  On Bloor Street, Bella was hit by a car after being tricked into racing across it by Frick and Frack.  Alexis also name-checks many other well-known streets including Kingston Road, Glen Stewart Park, Trinity-Bellwoods, Parkdale, and even St. Clair and Avenue Road which is close to where we live!  These specific Toronto-based settings made this fantasy a bit more grounded as we could imagine all the places where these dogs roamed.

While reading this book, I was reminded of the classic novel Lord of the Flies where an isolated group of boys struggled for dominance, formed cliques and empowered by groupthink, lost their sense of morality and performed unspeakable acts as a collective that might never have occurred if each acted individually.  I found it interesting that in Lord of the Flies, the boys turned into “depraved animals” while in Fifteen Dogs, the innocent, inherently loyal creatures turned into “depraved humanoids”. 

Given its subject matter, Fifteen Dogs is not an easy novel to perform in live theatre, but Crow’s Theatre is known for its creative staging and Marie Farsi who adapted and directed this play did a fantastic job. The Guloien Theatre, Crow’s main stage, can be configured in all sorts of arrangements.  This time, the audience sat in “the round” with 5 rows of tiered stadium seating surrounding the “stage”.  Six stellar actors each played the roles of multiple dogs, as well as the Greek Gods, humans who interacted with the dogs, and narrators who would convey the parts of the book that involved lyrical exposition.

We wondered with some trepidation about whether we would see actors prance around in “full-body dog suits” like the creepy movie version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Cats.  Wisely, for this production the costumes were much more subtle, merely hinting at the breed by the colour of clothing and the occasional scarf or hat.  The wrinkly ridges of skin on the Mastiff, Atticus, were represented by layers of grey scarf wrapped around the neck of the actor portraying him.  Rosie, the German shepherd had a piece of sleek fur draped over her shoulder. The tall slender actor playing Majnoun was dressed all in black, while the loopy, free-spirited poet Prince had wild, curly hair and was dressed in dark brown tones, with a fur-lined vest and boa-like scarf.  The sly Beagle Benjy had on a beige-toned checkered jacket and fedora hat, resulting in a look that channeled Nicely-Nicely Johnson from the musical Guys and Dolls.

While the clothing helped, the essence of each dog was conveyed more by the sounds, body movements and facial expressions produced by the actors’ performances.  In a stroke of stage-craft genius, fifteen plastic models were used to visually represent each of the dogs in the story.  They were first brought out in a tray during the scene in the veterinary clinic and then moved to one of the rocks on stage.  Being able to see the breed of each dog really helped to augment the performances of the actors.  Then one by one as the dogs died, their corresponding figure was carried off stage as the circumstances of their death was explained.  It felt like we were watching Agatha Christie’s classic mystery Ten Little Indians (aka And Then There Were None).

This was a terrific and creative interpretation of a difficult novel to adapt into a play.  We thoroughly enjoyed watching Fifteen Dogs at Crow’s Theatre.